Credit card companies, to take on PayPal

PayPal is definitely a very easy to use payment method, especially online. After all, you’re one button away from making a payment, which is far easier than reaching your credit card and completing all your information. However, this could change in the near future.

According to a report from Engadget, all major credit card companies, including Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover, are joining forces and planning to release their own checkout button.

On one side, this marks the end of the services that wanted to replicate the PayPal experience, like Masterpass or Visa Checkout, but it will significantly improve online payments.

A simple, yet very effective update

The idea behind this entire concept is simple: if people can checkout easier, they are willing to make more purchases. PayPal was pretty much the first to launch a concept like the digital wallet, which basically puts your entire payments behind a single service. Eventually, Amazon released something similar.

Considering the ‘history’ of these buttons, it was just a matter of time until credit card companies followed the example. Still, we can’t tell how much it will take them to implement the program.

Apparently, both Visa and Mastercard are now in talks with the retailers, but they’re also hoping to work alongside the World Wide Web Consortium, the authority in setting standards for browsers.

So, what are the main advantages?

First thing first, the new checkout button will make your shopping experience faster, but this is far from being the only advantage. It also very secure, as it will use the token technology that both Visa and Mastercard currently rely on.

Specifically, the button will create a temporary digital ID for each purchase you make, instead of using the actual credit card number. This process will significantly cut down on fraud, but also make it easier to keep your entire payment information up to date with all the online services you’re using, as the tokens will automatically update when you get a new card.